On your mark
by CelestialSpiritWizard
Summary: Lucy is on her schools cross country team, (She wanted something to do at the beginning of the year to stay in shape.) but a mysterious pain in her stomach is bothering her and her friends are worried. Not to mention that one guy she met in her history class who may also be on the team. He won't leave her alone about how worried he is. But maybe she doesn't mind.
1. Chapter 1

_Deep breath._

"Runners at their mark!"

 _You'll be ok._

"Get set!"

 _Just breath through the pain._

A gun sounded in the distance.

 _Shit._

XxXxX

Lucy sat in the waiting chair outside of the doctors office waiting to be called. The pain in her stomach pulled her attention demanding that she give it. She grumbled and slumped farther into the chair. This stupid stomach pain had been bothering her since June, and it was mid August. She had finally decided to go to the doctor to get it checked out. It was impacting her running and her times had taken a huge blow. She had began to lose time minute by minute and her coaches were not pleased. She had had a race yesterday and decided it best to take it easy, but still run. She finished with a 29:13 her worst time by a number of minutes. She sighed. It fricken hurt.

"Lucy Heartfilia," a doctor with curly gray hair and a tired face stepped around the corner. Lucy stood up and followed him to the back praying for good news.

XxXx

She was benched. No races for a month. There were only four months left before leagues and she couldn't afford to be out. But she had to be. She jogged around the track watching as the rest of the team headed to the trail. She wasn't allowed to run on the trail anymore, after she had passed out on the trail the other day the coaches decided to make her run laps every practice. It was probably for the best too. She had fainted about three miles out from the school behind the rest of the group on their way back. She must have been there for at least 30 minutes before an injured teammate happened across her. He had twisted his ankle on a dip in the trail and attempted to limp back on his own.

He shook Lucy awake and pulled her up. The two arrived back at school 15 after practice had ended. Coach was not happy. So she was stuck here jogging laps around the track while Gray with his twisted ankle walked. As soon as the team was finally out on the trail the two stopped to watch the football players rather then run. It was too boring doing laps.

"Screw this stupid foot," grumbled Gray.

"I feel your pain. I hate being week," she spat bitterly.

"Aw shut up Lucy you're not weak. You're just out for a month that's it." Gray responded.

She grumbled as a reply and turned back to the football players.

The doctors brushed her pain aside saying that it was only growing pains and she would be fine in a month. But it still sucked.

About 45 minutes passed and the team was still out doing a long distance run for today. Gray and Lucy decided to go to the trainers. Gray complained about wanting ice and Lucy wanted a popsicle. She had barely eaten during school for fear that it would upset her stomach.

They sat in the trainers Gray with his ice and Lucy with her popsicle. They talked about the start of the season. Technically they were just in preseason and the races were only preparation for the actual season. But it still mattered to Lucy. Practice was only optional at this point so people were coming and going. As they pleased.

Lucy sighed. "I better be ok by the first real race."

 **Ok so this is a story I decided to write based on my experiences this year because they were interesting to say the very least. Very entertaining. There was also some boy issues and I decided it would be perfect. So 99 percent of this fanfic is true. Lol. I know it's going to be a long one because this happened over the course of like 8 or 9 months so strap in. I hope you're enjoying it so far kisses to my lovely readers!**


	2. Chapter 2

_Deep breath._

It was Lucy's first day of her sophomore year. And it was a new school. Of course she knew people from summer cross country practices but it still terrified her. She straightened her casual red dress and cardigan. And smiled at her reflection in the mirror. She left her hair in natural curls and she wore the slightest bit of mascara. Perfect. She was going to meet Levy Gray Juvia and Gajeel out front so she could at least figure out where her first class was. All ran cross country accept for Gajeel who played football. She only met him through Levy, her closets friend. She had met Levy at the beginning of the year and the two hit it off. They had relatively similar running speeds and both enjoyed the same things. Levy later introduced her to Gajeel her boyfriend who played football.

Lucy took one more quick breath before hugging her dad goodbye and heading out the door to her car. She had a somewhat short commute to school so it took her five minutes until she was pulling into the lot. She got out of her car and walked the length of the lot to the front of Fairy Tail High. Levy was standing out front already talking to Juvia. Lucy waved high and they all ran into a massive hug. Around them terrified freshmen hustled into the doors with their heads down while sophomore girls squealed and hugged.

The group of girls waited for Gray and Gajeel before heading into the school. Levy and Lucy said goodbye to the rest of the group and headed upstairs to their first class.

The school day went by quickly and before she knew it she was in the locker rooms getting ready for practice. She pulled on running shorts and a tee and pulled her hair up. Then she walked out to the water fountains where she was meeting Gray. The two made their way out to the tack where they jogged their warm up together and sat waiting for the rest of the team. As soon as every had run their two laps around the track and sat in the shade of a big tree Aquarius and Macarov the coaches decided to emerge from the school looking grumpy. They marched up to the kids with scowls on their faces. They gave their annual beginning of the season speech and the team erupted in a roar of cheers. Lucy giggled at her team and stood up suddenly noticing someone across from her. He was tall and tan with a defined jaw and weirdly pink hair. He had the brightest smile she had seen plastered across his face with his fist in the air.

Lucy's heart began to flutter and her face flushed.

"Who is that?"

 **I kind of had to write another chapter tonight there may be one more I'm not entirely sure yet anyway kisses!**


	3. Chapter 3

_Deep breath._

She tried to swallow another breath through her closing air ways. Damn asthma. She coughed a little more before slowing down and joining Gray in a walk.

"Jeez I can believe you're even running. With this stomach issue and asthma, I'd be out." Gray remarked casually as she fell into step next to him.

"I just don't want to look like a baby," Lucy turned to look at him, "besides, it's not that bad."

Gray shrugged and they kept on walking around the track. The conversation shifted a few times as they discussed teachers and classes and after school activities. They finished their laps and went to the trainers for ice and popsicles and Lucy took a quick puff of her inhaler.

The first meet was in a week and she had to be in tip top shape.

XxXxX

The next day at school seemed to go much slower. It felt like forever until she arrived at her third period history class. She walked in to discover that her seat from the day before had been taken. Angrily she shuffled to the other side of the room and took a seat. She set her back pack down and turned to face the teacher, but out of the corner of her eye she saw a mysterious flash of pink. Her head darted to her left to see the very boy from yesterday sitting directly next to her shuffling through his messy backpack.

She squeaked and turned back to the front a hint of pink dusting across her cheeks. This was going to be a rough class.

They started simply with notes and it was easy to focus on her paper. It was hard; however, to miss the casual glances the boy gave her every few minutes. She felt him stare at her for seconds on end and her blush only grew.

 _I'm just imagining it right? There's no way he's staring at a girl like me...right?_

Lucy continued to take her notes eyes flashing up to the board every few seconds then flashing back to her paper and scribbling the notes down, her tongue sticking out slightly.

And Natsu almost died. Because she was so darn cute and she was sitting right next to him and she didn't even know his name. But he knew hers.

His first day of practice he had met Gray and they had become what you could call friends, competitive friends, but friends none the less. He had seen her the first day and immediately asked Gray her name. He felt like a creep of course but he couldn't help it, how could he. He prayed she ran the same speed as him and maybe they could talk, get to know each other. But as soon as he saw her start to run the laps around the track he felt a wave of emotions. First and foremost he was concerned. Running around the track meant an injury and he didn't know why but he cared that she was hurt. Next he felt jealousy, she was running with Gray. Then he felt something else he couldn't quite explain. The way she ran, smiling at her friends as they passed to go to the trail, it made him pause. And he stared shamelessly at that smile, before he was caught by Gray and his smirk. Natsu then grumbled and jogged off joining the rest of the pack.

And here he was staring again. Damn she looked cute. And he was just some creep staring at her. He sighed he had to remember to ask Gray about Lucy tonight at practice.

XxXx

"Why do you care hot head!?"

"Because you prick," Natsu didn't really have a retort. He could tell Gray what he actually thought about Lucy.

Gray sighed. "Doctors benched her," he 's heart squeezed. "Said she's having weird growing pains. That mixed with her asthma isn't doing so well with her. She's been having a rough time."

Natsu's heart softened. The poor girl had it pretty rough. He nodded a thanks to Gray and headed off on the trail. He liked to run to clear his thoughts and it was a nice day. That mixed with the fact that it was a recovery run. He only had to run five miles at his own pace. So he set a steady rhythm and ran on the trail. It was surrounded by trees on either side. To his left a small. Creek poked through the trees. He loved the sound of the wind in the trees and his shoes on the trail.

He turned the corner and the trail opened up. There was a lake to his right and a tall grass field surrounded the creek to his left. A willow hung lazily over the lake while a bridge connected the two banks of the creek to his left. Nothing cleared his mind better. He continued to run trees filling his vision again. His mind drifted to the blonde running on the track. He wondered when she would be allowed tp run again. And if she would want to run with him. No he was crazy why would she want to run with some creep like him. He sighed and sped up. Pain made it better.

 **Yet another chapter tonight wow! Got to see some of Natsu's perspective there pretty cool. I also had to romanticize this a little because obviously I didn't know what my guy thought of me I mean it probably wasn't that but I had to make it interesting right? Anyway kisses for my lovelies!**


	4. Chapter 4

_Deep breath_

Lucy stepped into her third period history class with an unwelcome nervousness. She didn't understand it either. He was just some kid right?

Who was she kidding he wasn't just some kid he was...well she wasn't sure what he was. But it wasn't just some kid.

She took another breath and sat down in the desk. She unzipped her bag and pulled out her notebook. She placed it on her desk keeping her head above her backpack to grab a pencil. Finally she came up with a jerk, forcing her to move strands of hair from her face.

God was he really drooling? Natsu shook his head. Damn girls. Damn Lucy and her pretty hair and her smile and her eyes and her voice. He huffed at himself and opened his book just as Lucy did the same thing.

The teacher stepped in front of the class clapping her hands loudly.

"Alright pipsqueaks! You got to hear a little bit about me your first day of class so why don't you return the favor? Let me see," she paused hands on her hip glancing around the room at the terrified children. "How many of you play basketball?"

Relieved at the question the students shifted in their seats as a handful of rowdy boys stood up cheering and slapping each other's back. Natsu scoffed.

"What about football?"

An even louder group of boys jumped up with a cheer.

"How about tennis?" A small girl stood nervously fidgeting with her shirt.

The teacher went on mentioning sport after sport until finally, " how about all you runners out there."

Lucy smiled proudly and stood up along with the boy next to her and a couple freshmen girls in the back of the room.

"What a hottie." Some football player began to whisper to his friends as they stared quite blatantly at Lucy's ass.

Her face turned to fire and she turned around to say something when she was suddenly interrupted.

"Shut it Laxus," the boy next to her sneered practically flashing his fangs. Laxus almost growled back involuntarily puffing out his chest. The entire exchange ended as soon as it had begun and everyone was sitting again leaving Lucy to wonder why this mysterious boy stood up for her...

XxXxX

The entire day Lucy practically never came down from her thoughts. Reasonably the remark from earlier had left her quite upset. Not to mention the fact that the mysterious boy had stood up for her and almost gotten in a fight with a football player. Over her! She did understand.

She stepped off of the stairs into the crowded hallway, her hands on her backpack straps. Across the hall she saw a familiar face. "Lev—ahh!" She was suddenly shoved to the ground by some upperclassman who grunted a "fucking underclassman" at her before stomping away.

She stood up angrily, not noticing the pink haired teen only feet away from her fuming. God Natsu hated highschool.

XxXxX

Practice was a blur of excitement for Lucy. She was going to be able to run again! She changed faster then she ever had before and rushed through her warm up as quickly as possible. She had rushed so much she didn't even notice the fogginess of the day, she was too excited to run.

She sat in the grass talking happily with Levy as they waited for the coaches. And now sitting here in the grass is when Lucy noticed how truly gloomy it was. What a shame she loved running on clear sunny days. But it didn't matter she was running.

The coaches appeared almost magically and made the announcements for the day along with the workout. They were doing hill sprints. They would run a quarter of a mile up a steep ass hill and then book in down a total of 12 times. Lucy hated these.

"One last thing," Aquarius practically barked, "I'm sure you've all heard of the Forrest fires in the mountains this week. Take it easy your breathing is going to be impacted."

"That's why it's so gloomy!" Levy pieces together turning to an even gloomier looking Lucy. "What's wrong Lu?"

"I forgot to take my inhaler!" Lucy stood up suddenly causing her stomach to erupt in pain. _Shit not now._

"Calm down Lucy I'm sure you have time-" Levy was cut off by the coaches.

"Alright lets go!"

Levy and Lucy nervously started in step with the rest of the team towards the hill they would be practicing on. Lucy's stomach felt like it was being stabbed with each step. This definitely wasn't growing pains. And the asthma didn't help.

 **Yet another chapter I am on fire. Quick disclaimer all of these exercises were exercises I had to do while on cross country. Yes they sucked. Another quick disclaimer I made Lucy a mucccchhhh better runner then me because the story wouldn't have been interesting if she ran a 31 every race because she had to stop to puke every five seconds. So um yeah. Kisses for my lovelies!**


	5. Chapter 5

_Deep breath_

 _Breath deeply_

 _Deeply breathing_

 _Going strong you're good keep running it's ok-_

She turned and wretched into a bush.

Shit.

Levy turned to her with a concerned look in her eye and the two stopped.

"You're ok Lucy it's ok" Levy soothed as she held Lucy's hair out of her face while the girl puked into a nearby bush. Her body ached and ever muscled told her to fall into a heap on the ground.

"O-ok I'm ok." Lucy whispered shakily once she had calmed down. Lucy started a slow jog trying to catch up with the rest of the team. Levy reluctantly joined.

"You should go back..." Levy turned to her hesitantly.

"No," she paused to cough the smoke was starting to get to her, "I need to run." Levy sighed and looked ahead.

XxXx

They reached the hill they were going to be running on and all paused to drink some water and catch their breaths. No one failed to notice Lucy's coughing fit. Especially Natsu.

Due to the heat the majority of the team had pulled their shirts off much to the coaches dismay and they prepared for the 10 hill sprints.

"You ready!?" Lucy cheered to levy enthusiastically.

XxXx

Natsu licked his lips. He had to stop staring. Why did she have to take her shirt off. Gods why did she _have_ to take her shirt off.

He shook his head and sped up.

"I've got this," he whispered to himself.

He reached Lucy and slowed slightly. "Hey," he started casually.

"H-hi" she wheezed through strangled breathes.

"I'm Natsu we sit next to each other in world civ!" _God I sound like a dork._

"I'm _cough_ Lucy _cough_ nice to meet you!" Despite her gasps and coughs Lucy had a cheerful disposition to her tone.

"Hey are you ok Luce?" His voice was laced with worry, which confused Lucy.

"I-" she turned and puked yet again on the side of the trail. As she emptied the contents of her stomach her coughs sped up. After she was no longer to empty anymore her coughs were all that remained. She could barely breathe.

The loud coughs drowned out the worried shouts coming from her peer beside her. Unbeknownst to Lucy Natsu was desperately tapping her back praying she would calm down.

"Breath Luce just breath," his face contorted as she hunched over. "Please Lucy just breath." He practically begged.

Lucy looked up at him her vision blurring.

 _Natsu._

Everything went black.

 **Sorry I've been behind. Rough couple of days.**


	6. Chapter 6

Deep breath!

Someone was screaming at her to take a deep breath. They were loud. Lucy didn't like it. She just wanted to sleep peacefully.

The yells got louder. She could begin to make them out.

"Goddammit why won't you just breath!"

Was she not breathing? She honestly couldn't care at this point. But wait, she really wasn't breathing.

Her eyes flashed open followed by her mouth. Monstrous coughs overwhelmed her immediately. Her newly opened eyes slammed shut in a fruitless attempt to block out the pain. A groan pushed its way past her lips and the coughs ceased. Her eyes peeled open and she tried to focus on the crowd that had surrounded her. She lifted her head for a better view.

Half of the varsity team stood to her right whispering amongst themselves. A few C kids stood petrified to her left staring down at her. Natsu sat crouching on the left side of her saying something she couldn't make out both worry and relief clear on his face. On the other side of her legs Levy was holding her wrist checking her pulse. Both of the coaches were discussing something straight in front of her.

She let her head fall back onto the dirt trail with a thud. What a mess.

Natsu's voices seemed to clear up a little and she was able to make out the words.

"Lucy are you ok? Seriously answer me please," he ran his hand through his already messy hair.

With a grunt Lucy threw herself up. Dizziness swarmed her vision for a second before she was able to make eye contact with Natsu.

"What...what happened?" Her voice broke slightly, a tell tale sign her asthma attack had been worse then she thought.

Natsu opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Macarov.

"Alright all you brats clear out and head back to do your cool off we'll handle this!" He turned to Natsu and Levy, "one of you walk her back the other run ahead and get the nurse she'll need to be checked."

Without hesitation Natsu hooked his arms under the blondes knees and back and picked her up with little effort. "I got her. Levy you run ahead."

Levy thought it over for a second but nodded her head and began to run pushing past the clearing group of onlookers. The coaches continued to talk as they jogged back together.

"I-I was just starting my second hill sprint an-and you came-" she looked terribly confused there in Natsu's arms. In his opinion she was absolutely adorable, and there was something about her that made him want to hold her close to protect her at all costs and to never let go.

"You passed out on the side of the trail and I had to pull you down to the bottom of the hill. I made sure that no one saw you but when the coaches followed the team back after everyone finished and they found you it was kind of hard to hide it." He looked away sheepishly. "Are you ok?" His gaze landed on her again and she finally processed everything.

"Thank you." She said simply.

"For what?" Natsu cocked his head to the side.

"For helping someone as pitiful as me. I can't believe I passed out! God I can't handle anything can I." She looked down at the passing pebbles.

There was a moment of what Lucy thought was awkward silence, but she was too busy staring at the ground to notice Natsu's confused and almost angry looking face.

"That's a lie." He whispered lowly. His voice shook ever so slightly. It scared Lucy, but not in a bad way. "Don't lie to yourself like that. Ever."

The rest of the walk was spent in silence. Natsu's steady footsteps lulling her to sleep.

XxXxX

Lucy was now sitting on a small cot in the nurses room. She had been given some water and a few crackers to eat to put something in her stomach. Natsu was forced to leave by the nurse tho he insisted on staying until she was free to leave. After about ten minutes Lucy could walk somewhat steadily and the nurse let her go telling her to rest when she got home. Lucy thanked her and left the room. A worried Gray and Levy stood pacing outside the door.

"Oh Lu!" Levy crushed her into a big hug. "I was so worried!" She pulled back examining every inch of Lucy's body.

"I'm all good Levy just a little tired that's all." Lucy turned to Gray.

"Natsu told me to wait here for you, not that I wouldn't have regardless, he had to leave but he was worried. And so am I. How ya holding up?" He shoved his hands in his pocked. A very normal habit of his.

"Like I said tired but ok," she smiled softly. "Thanks guys."

And with that she went home.

 **I feel like my writing is getting progressively worse. Lol. My apologies. Kisses for my lovelies!**


End file.
